Joel Klatt on USC being higher than UCLA in CFP rankings: 'Make it make sense'

As the Pac-12 looks for a way into the College Football Playoff this year, three teams made it into the top 12 of the latest rankings — Oregon at No. 6, USC at No. 8 and UCLA at No. 12. FOX Sports analyst Joel Klatt took issue with the CFP committee’s decision with those last two spots, though.

USC and UCLA are both 8-1 this year with losses to ranked teams. The Trojans fell to Utah and the Bruins lost to Oregon. But from a numbers standpoint, it would appear UCLA has an edge over USC, as Klatt argued. The Bruins are allowing 373.1 total yards per game while the Trojans give up 409.2 yards per contest. On the other side of the ball, UCLA is averaging 507.3 total yards per game compared to UCLA’s 495.5 average.

Based on those numbers, Klatt called on the CFP committee to explain the discrepancy between USC and UCLA.

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“Make it make sense, committee. Please,” Klatt said on “Breaking The Huddle with Joel Klatt” Wednesday night. “Because I feel like I’m taking ‘crazy pills,’ to borrow a line from Mugatu. UCLA has a better resume and is, right now, statistically, I would call it a better team than USC. So how in the world does the committee justify putting UCLA four spots behind USC? Now, maybe the Bruins don’t care about this because all it does is it overrates USC a little bit, which they will have the ability to beat that team and maybe they would get a little bit more of a bump towards the back end of the season. But if you’re just looking at this from the perspective of an analyst — like myself — you look at this and you’re like, ‘Hold on.’

“UCLA has two wins against CFP-ranked opponents: Utah and Washington. Their lone loss is a better loss than the loss USC took. USC lost to a two-loss Utah team on the road. UCLA lost to a one-loss team Oregon team, which the CFP committee thinks is a top-six team. … So they have a better loss and two better wins and statistically, they’re probably a better team. Even when you look at the stat sheet, you see that USC is struggling on defense. In the last three games, USC has given up 524 yards per game and 38 points. They’re right now 109th in yards per play defense. I think UCLA is better and I think that they should be rated higher. Committee, make it make sense and please, don’t discount wins because wins should matter. They are the currency of college football.”

CFP committee chair Boo Corrigan: Caleb Williams, emotions of loss to Utah factors in USC’s ranking

During a teleconference after the CFP rankings came out, chairman Boo Corrigan explained the reasoning behind USC’s ranking. He said the emotional nature of the loss to Utah and Caleb Williams’ performance as reasons why the Trojans came in above UCLA.

“I think the one-point loss by USC at Utah, going for two, the emotion of that game is something that the committee certainly has talked about,” Corrigan said. “The job that Caleb Williams has done with the 28 touchdown passes, one of the top offenses in the country, putting up 41 points. That being said, there’s a lot of respect for UCLA in that game, with their one loss being to Oregon by 15 at Oregon.

“Again, we’re taking what we have to date and going to continue to evaluate and make sure that what we’re doing and how we’re looking at this is in the best interest of college football and making sure we get the top 25 right.”